The Clothes Don't Make the Man
by EmeraldMoonStar
Summary: All the men of the village must leave for an urgent reason. Unwilling to let Sasuke be in danger, Sakura takes matters into her own hands.
1. I Won't Be Left Behind!

**Yup, this is a quick one-shot that I wrote for no reason. I should've been updating, but I wasn't. Well, uh, Happy New Year!!!**

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"Under Hokage-sama's orders, a male shinobi from every family must report to his office for placement in the troops to fight Orochimaru!" Kamizuki Izumo stood on a platform announcing the message to the entire village. Haruno Sakura gasped in horror. That meant that Sasuke-kun had to fight. Kakashi-sensei… Naruto... All of her teammates had to fight and leave her behind.

Orochimaru had demanded that the village hand over Sasuke, or go to war with Otogakure no Sato. Sasuke had refused to go, no matter what the Elders would have said. Fortunately, they also refused to let him go, so there were no disagreements in that. Sakura had read many things on Orochimaru, and was terrified about what he might do to her Sasuke-kun.

Izumo had finished his announcement and was know calling family names for one person to take their scroll. Sakura only stayed long enough to make sure her nightmare had become reality. After Sasuke was called up, Sakura slowly headed home with her shoulders drooped. Tonight Sasuke would have to leave to go fight Orochimaru's forces. It wouldn't take Orochimaru long to find Sasuke on the battlefield and then kidnap him.

Sakura was still deep in thought when she arrived home. Today was supposed to be the day that Team 7 started the Chuunin Exams. They were supposed to become Chuunins together.

"None of this was supposed to happen!" Sakura sobbed her heart out into her pillow. "But what can I do? I'm a woman! I'm not allowed to do anything except wait!" Sakura cries echoed emptily around her room. Her last encounter with Sasuke hadn't been a great one, and she felt ashamed for it.

_Team 7 were trying the bell test again, to test their ability to work together. Naruto had gotten himself trapped in a genjutsu and was currently laying on the ground drooling himself into unconsciousness. Sasuke had gotten pretty beaten up from Kakashi, leaving only Sakura left. Kakashi had immobilized her legs and casually tossed a kunai at her chest. Instead of doing the smart thing and leaning to the side to dodge, Sakura closed her eyes and brought her hands up to her head for protection._

_When she felt no pain, she took a peek from between her fingers. Sasuke stood in front of her with a kunai in his leg. It wasn't fatal, but it still looked painful. When he looked at her, it was the most scornful look Sakura had ever received._

_"You're completely useless."_

Sakura's lowered lip quivered at the recent memory. No matter how many times she had apologized, his opinion of her hadn't changed. She clutched her pillow even closer. She tried to brace herself for the upcoming days.

"I am about to lose everything. I am about to lose everything." She repeated this chant over and over, until she felt she would be about to deal with it. Every time she said the words, she only felt worse and worse.

"I'd do anything to save him!" Sakura was now eyeing a shuriken she had forgotten to put away. "Even die," she whispered. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. It wasn't a particularly well thought out idea, but it would save Sasuke from the war.

Sakura jumped out of bed and ran into her bathroom. She threw open the cabinets under her sink and began to throw the contents all over the bathroom until she found what she was looking for. A small box of black hair dye. She had bought it when she was younger, because all the girls had made fun of her hair color, and she wanted to look normal. Right before she was about to head home to do the deed was when Ino had decided to come talk to her. Thanks to Ino, Sakura had never even used the dye. In retrospect, Sakura supposed this was for the best.

She opened the box and quickly read the directions. She turned on the faucet and stuck her head underneath. She winced as the cold water poured all over her head. Without paying much attention, she pulled the plastic gloves that had fallen out of the box over her hands. She grabbed the bottle containing the dye, and squirted it on her hands and applied the black goo to her long, petal pink hair.

It took almost all of the dye, and a total of twenty minutes to completely cover her hair, wait the ten minutes for it to set, and to then wash it all out. Sakura's hair was dripping water all over the floor that she told herself she'd clean up later.

Walking back to her room, she dug through her bag with all of her ninja weapons until she found a kunai. Raising it slowly to the hair that covered her shoulders, Sakura froze for a moment. She touched the hair lightly, took a deep breath, and sliced her hair right off; leaving her with shoulder length black hair, instead of pink hair that reached her lower back.

Sakura exhaled slowly. Now there was no turning back. She marched across the hall back into the bathroom. She used the remaining dye to make her eyebrows match her new hair color. She also pulled out some hair gel and started to spike her hair in the back.

Once she had finished that, she grabbed some extra strength hairspray and coated her entire head with it. Satisfied that her hair wasn't going to change anytime soon, she went right back to her room, and searched through her dresser drawers. Having found the shirt and shorts Sasuke had given her when she offered to repair them for him, since Kakashi had made quite a few rips and tears on them. She had fixed them the second she left Team 7 and planned to return the ASAP, but that was when Izumo made his announcement.

Sakura discarded her usual attire and pulled on Sasuke's clothing. She shivered at the air flowing throughout the shirt. Sakura looked herself over in the mirror. "Almost." She was missing the arm warmers that Sasuke always wore, as well as the ones on his legs, but those weren't the problem. The main problem…was her eyes. Sakura looked thoughtfully at the mirror for a moment.

Suddenly, she ran into her mother's bathroom, and threw open the medicine cabinet. Her mom always kept her contacts in there, and they just so happened to be black colored contacts. Fortunately, Sakura had the same prescription as her mother, and popped both her contacts out in one swift move. She had always worn the clear ones, as green mixed with any color that wasn't brown or black ended up looking weird. The last time she had tried blue colored ones, everyone had thought she was Hinata with a wig, and a bad case of pinkeye.

Now with the black contacts in, Sakura put her own clear ones in her mother's case. Her mom would notice the difference, but she would at least be able to see with them. Closing the medicine cabinet, Sakura looked at herself in the mirror again. She jumped in fright at what she saw. Her Sasuke-kun was looking right back at her. She leaned forward to examine her reflection closer. Her skin tone was nearly identical to Sasuke's anyway, so she wouldn't have to worry about that. They both had small, straight noses, which meant no one would notice much of a difference. The only real difference was the expression. She usually wore a happy expression, whereas Sasuke's was impassive.

Sakura did have a minor talent in imitating people, which included facial expression. She closed her eyes and imagined Sasuke's appearance when he had insulted her. After a long sigh, she opened her eyes. She nearly let out a whimper; it looked like Sasuke was right there, calling her useless again.

Swallowing, and breathing rather fast, Sakura decided that this was about as good as she could do. She knew that Sasuke was out training again with Kakashi and Naruto to prepare for the upcoming fight. Knowing that this would be her only chance, Sakura headed out of her door, and towards the Uchiha compound.

She composed her expression into one of boredom as she walked towards Sasuke's home. Surprisingly, no one even gave her a second glance. To them, she was just Uchiha Sasuke. They hardly even knew him, so they wouldn't notice the difference anyway. Sakura had no idea how to fool Naruto. She had no Sharingan, she couldn't use any Katon jutsus, and he would hear the voice difference eventually.

Still not sure of what to do, she arrived at the compound. Knowing she was now alone, she sprinted as only a ninja could to Sasuke's front door. Oddly, he had left it unlocked. Shrugging this fact away, Sakura ran to the one place Sasuke would put something to not forget it; his bedside table.

Now, under more happy circumstances, Sakura would've taken her time, and looked around, but in her current state of panic, she hardly noticed where she was going. She grabbed the scroll that Izumo had given Sasuke, and borrowed a pair of arm warmers, as well as some for her legs. She put those on right away, and also took his extra bag full of ninja necessities. Absentmindedly, Sakura looked out the window. She gasped at the darkness. If she didn't hurry, Sasuke would come back, and _he_ would know it was her immediately. Without putting anything away, or covering her tracks, Sakura sped out of the house like the devil himself was after her. She headed straight for the Hokage Tower.

Once inside, she plopped herself down on a chair in relief. 'I made it. He didn't catch me." Much more relaxed, she opened the scroll to see who she would be working with. She paled at the sight. The shinobi were working in pairs for this and out of anyone, Sasuke had been paired with Naruto.

Sakura heart dropped. Naruto may be thick, but even he would notice Sasuke was acting off after a while. What made things worse was that she couldn't turn back. She had already cut and dyed her hair, and had stolen from Sasuke. She had to follow through with this whole thing. Arranging her face into the standard Sasuke look, she stood up and walked to the Hokage's office. She knocked three times, and after hearing the 'come in' she walked in. Naruto already stood there and had appeared to be waiting for Sasuke. He had a scowl on his face, but seemed to be excited for the fight coming up.

"Naruto, you and Sasuke are going to be near the front lines. You commanding Jounin is Kurenai, and you are to follow her orders without question. Understood?" The Sandaime was visibly stressed from the knowledge of a war starting. His voice was weary, and he seemed to just want to be alone, so he could crash. Sakura noticed this and took pity on the man, so she gave him a quick nod, and grabbed Naruto by the back of the collar and dragged him out of he office.

Once outside of the Tower, Naruto twisted out of her grip. "Get you filthy hands off of me teme!" Naruto looked disgusted as the walked beside Sakura. "I can walk just fine on my own, dattebayo!" Right after he had spoken, he tripped over a ball that a child had left in the street.

"Pft, usuradonkachi," Sakura said in her best impression of Sasuke. Miraculously, Naruto just crossed his arms, and marched beside her mumbling things about Sasuke better left unsaid.

Once the two reached the village gate, they found Kurenai waiting for them. She said nothing, but motioned them both to follow her as she sped off. They did so and headed off towards the Oto nin, and prepared to fight Orochimaru for their friend and teammate, Uchiha Sasuke.

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**I probably won't make a sequel, but if there's enough interest in one, I might. Not a very good plot, but it was late when I started. Flames are welcome, unless they are along the lines of: SASUSAKU SUXX!!!!!!1111 'Enter persons name here'SAKU 4EVR1!!11!!!!!!**


	2. Being A Boy Isn't Easy For A Girl

**Yeah, I'm back from the dead as it were. There are too many reasons as to why I was unable to update anything to list, but I should be updating everything more often now. I have been convinced into writing another chapter for this, so I hope you all like it.**

Sakura chased after Naruto and Kurenai, matching their speed with relative ease. The trio traveled in silence, two of them awaiting orders from the third. Naruto was trembling in absolute excitement at the thought of finally being able to prove himself to everyone. Sakura was also shaking, but for another reason entirely; she was worried that someone would figure out that she was not Sasuke, and she was also worried about even surviving long enough for anyone to even notice. Her throat became dry just thinking about that, and she swallowed quietly to avoid detection by Naruto.

It was the dead of night before Kurenai motioned for them to stop in a small clearing. Not one word had been spoken the entire trip, which didn't bother Sakura at all; it wasn't like Sasuke was overly talkative anyways. The surprising part was that even Naruto didn't try to strike up a conversation. Before Sakura could try to contemplate this, Kurenai started to speak.

"This is were we will be camping for the night," she explained. "We will not be fighting until morning because it is harder to keep track of allies in the dark." She glanced at both Naruto and Sakura at this (Sakura was unsure as to who the comment was directed at). "You two will be in one tent and I will take the other. I'll give you guys a break and take the first watch." With that, she started to put up a tent, and did so in so little time it would make any civilian camper jealous. Sakura just stared ahead blankly in horror. She hadn't thought about the fact that she would be forced to bunk with men. How she was going to change, or bathe was a complete mystery to her.

Naruto didn't seem too happy about who his roommate was either. He was currently stomping over to put up their tent muttering about temes and how he was going to catch a disease from one. Sakura knew that Naruto was completely hopeless at setting up a tent, so she headed over to help put it up.

With much more trouble than Kurenai and quite a bit more noise and disagreements, the tent was finally ready. Naruto was still grumbling as he marched through the opening, determinedly ignoring Sakura. Sakura stepped in after him a plopped Sasuke's bag down on the ground and started rummaging through it to find the sleeping bag he always packed. After a few minutes of no luck and wondering whether he took it out for some reason, Naruto looked over in amusement.

"You always stick it in the second pocket from the front," he says, more than a little condescendingly. Sakura figured it wouldn't hurt to check there, and sure enough, there was Sasuke's usual sleeping bag. Naruto was grinning at Sasuke's sudden memory lapse.

"Th-Hn." She had almost thanked him but she stopped herself just in time. Naruto didn't seem to notice, or care about the lack of gratitude. Sakura rolled out the makeshift bed as far from Naruto's as she could manage with arising suspicion. She was about to lie down and crash when she realized she had no idea what Sasuke slept in. 'What if he sleeps shirtless?' This would create a problem because, obviously, Sakura was a girl and unable to do so, and by not doing so Naruto would wonder about why she kept her shirt on. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Naruto was taking _his_ shirt off and currently had his back to her. Seeing her opportunity, Sakura slid under the cover that the sleeping bag provided, and yanked the blanket clear up to her neck. She rolled on her side so she was facing away from Naruto and tried to get some sleep (though trying to sleep in something that was positively drenched in Sasuke's natural smell was a little distracting).

Sakura woke up rather suddenly went she felt something repeatedly hitting her back. It took her a minute realize that it was Naruto kicking her rather roughly. "What is it, dobe?" She didn't even have to feign annoyance this time; she was not a morning person and she despised being woken up in such a manner. As far as she could tell, it was still night due to the fact that she couldn't see anything still.

Naruto had stopped kicking once he had gotten a response. "You were talking in your sleep," he said sounding tired, yet amused by this. Sakura sent him a questioning look as to why that meant for him to come and wake her up. "Normally, I wouldn't care about what's going through your head, but you kept on muttering 'Sasuke-kun…'. I'm surprised you don't refer to yourself as Sasuke-sama." Now Naruto looked at Sakura suspiciously, while his voice was dripping in sarcasm that was uncharacteristic. Silently thanking Sasuke for his mannerisms, she replied in the only way she knew how.

"Hn." She threw an irritated punch at Naruto's stomach, which hit lighter than she intended to, and shut her eyes in a clear sign that this conversation was over. Naruto scuffed his foot on the ground in irritation, but he went back to his side of the tent quietly. Inwardly, Sakura groaned at her mistake. She had had no idea that she talked in her sleep, let alone that she talked about Sasuke. She was also wondering about when she would be able to find time to clean her contacts, since her eyes were starting to itch. Mind at unease, she fell into a light sleep.

Sakura awoke for a second time by Naruto, although it was from finding him cuddled up next to her and not from kicking. Now Sakura didn't mind it too much, definitely not enough to do much about it, but there was no way Sasuke would tolerate this. Sakura was beginning to think about whether Sasuke would try to slip away silently, so that Naruto would never know, or to punch the living daylights out of him, Naruto shifted in his sleep and brought his hand from Sakura's waist to much more forbidden grounds. Mortified at finding his hand unknowingly right across her chest, Sakura bolted straight up in reflex and smacked his hand away. Naruto looked up at her blearily, but before he could ask for an explanation Sakura stormed out of the tent to relieve Kurenai from her watch. She nodded at him, and stood up to go into her own private tent. Once she disappeared from sight, Sakura sank down onto the tree stump her superior had been sitting on.

'Well this has gone great,' she thought bitterly, the resentment almost tangible. 'Naruto is already suspicious, I am already uncomfortable with posing as a guy, and this looks like it will be a long term assignment.' Sakura pulled out her contacts case, and a small bottle of solution from her shorts pocket. She figured that no one was around to see that Sasuke's eyes had miraculously changed colors, and her eyesight was pretty good without contacts anyways. She popped them out without too much thought and sighed at the relief this brought her eyes. She closed them for a few seconds to revel in how good it felt before opening to see a slightly blurred replica of a few seconds ago. Being on watch was a rather boring and uneventful job nine times out of ten, so she began to wonder what Sasuke was doing at that moment. He obviously had gone home to find his scroll missing, along with his bag of usual things for missions lasting more than a day. It's possible that he had reported this to the Hokage, and that there was someone coming after Kurenai to tell her that she had an imposter with her. Whether Sasuke had noticed her absence was unknown to her, but the darker part of conscience wondered if he would even care if he did know.

Shaking her head to rid herself of these thoughts he tried to focus on the area around her. Those thoughts would only cause trouble and were not productive in the slightest.

Once Sakura noticed the sun starting to rise, she slipped her contacts back in and checked that her hair was spiky enough to pass as Sasuke's (how he kept his hair so spiky all the time was a secret only known to him). Conveniently enough, Kurenai came out of her tent right at this moment.

"Sasuke, can you wake up Naruto please?" She looked fairly well rested, and didn't seem to have been interrupted while sleeping, something Sakura was more than a little jealous about. She nodded her assent, and stepped into her shared tent. Naruto was completely sprawled out and drool was pooling on his pillow. Narrowing her eyes in slight disgust, she headed over to Naruto was kicked him soundly in the back once. "Get up, dobe." Naruto grunted in response, but he did sit up, so Sakura started to roll up her sleeping bag, and stuffed it soundly into her bag. By this time, Naruto was pulling his shirt back on, and looked very _un_rested, probably do to getting slapped in the middle of the night. Shouldering her back she headed out of her tent and waited for instructions from Kurenai. She figured that Naruto could take down the tent, since she did most of the work in putting it up.

She sighed inaudibly at the thought of the day ahead. This was going to be the longest mission she had ever been on.

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**Now I could end it here, but something tells me that wouldn't be appreciated...Review please!**

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